


Enthrallment

by NervousAsexual



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Mind Manipulation, spriggans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:54:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21835537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NervousAsexual/pseuds/NervousAsexual
Summary: Do you know what a spriggan can do to a thief?
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10
Collections: NervousAsexual's Stephen Russell Skyrim Challenge





	Enthrallment

Do you know what spriggans do when they sleep?

They tuck themselves into trees, of course, everybody knows that much. But inside their warm safe trees, protected from the world, they dream. Spriggans dream of the cave where they are safe from the world, where the only humans are there to protect them from the outside, where nature can remain its tangled, complicated yet simple self.

Do you know what thieves do when they are caught?

They run. No heart is as cowardly as the one that creeps in shadow. A caught thief has no loyalty and thinks only of saving his own skin--as opposed to the uncaught thief, who has no loyalty and thinks only of how he can twist a situation to his benefit.

A thief that runs from the Jarl's longhouse in Falkreath is a thief far from safety. In the Rift he would answer to the guild, and the guild offers some protection in exchange for the most basic of common decency. A thief in Falkreath Hold has never followed those rules. He is a cornered rat, and cornered rats bite.

A thief by nature is useless face to face. His skills are put to best use in shadows, where his light armor makes him light on his feet. When cornered the thief may move quickly enough to bury his dagger in a guard's throat, but he has no protection from the waraxe she carries. Its weight alone is enough to slice his shoulder open to the bone.

A wound so deep will bring the thief to his knees, but not for long, not with his desperate want to survive. He will run, even when brave civilians run to close ranks on him. He will take the handaxe blow to his cheek and only waver a moment. He will take an arrow to his back and stumble on.

He will disappear into the shadow of the woods, and only then will he fall.

A wounded thief will head northwest, though the blood loss will ensure he is not aware of this. A wounded thief will walk until he can't anymore, until he can't keep on his feet, until he's too weak to carry the bag of stolen treasures that were not worth these injuries.

Do you know how far a thief with those wounds can walk unassisted? It isn't far. A thief in such a condition, a pathetic, weak, penniless thief, can make it to the ruins along the road outside the city, and no farther.

Such a thief will stumble into the ruins, telling himself he'll find a hidden corner and bind his wounds and think on what to do next. He will be so focused on staying conscious until then that he will not notice the bandits, fresh corpses lying in long, blood-spattered grass.

Do you know what it takes to wake a spriggan? It's more than you'd think. Any good thief should be able to avoid them. But a wounded thief is not necessarily a good thief. He might, for example, brush against a sleeping spriggan, where a good thief would make his own way. A spriggan can awaken from its dream in only a moment, and when it emerges from its tree in a burst of light and insects buzzing even a good thief may not be able to escape.

And a wounded thief will look at the spriggan and know that there is nothing he can do. A better thief might run, might fight back, might do something.

But, as we've established, a better thief would not be in this situation.

A wounded thief will let himself faint.

Do you know what a spriggan will do with a single wounded human? The stories don't say. A human it has wounded, well, of course it will kill that human. But a passing human, who has fought men and mer and lost, such a human represents a unique opportunity.

A spriggan's sap burns on contact with human skin and hardens quickly. A handful of sap pressed to a deep waraxe wound in a thief's shoulder will stop the bleeding. An arrow requires less sap, and a simple slice left by a handaxe less still. There will still be discomfort, even pain. But...

Do you know how a spriggan defends itself in the wild?

Anyone who's engaged with a spriggan in close combat will tell you of the spell that produces swarms of bees, of the poison and the claws. At a distance, though, enthrallment is the weapon of choice. Any passing animal--from the lowliest hare to the deadliest dragon--is a potential thrall. Even an animal closely bonded with a human will turn at a glance. Men and mer, however, are usually resistant to enthrallment.

Usually.

A thief, already a weak-willed sort, hurt, with spriggan sap oozing into his veins, will open his eyes and know that whatever he was before he must set aside and protect the spriggan with his life.

Perhaps a thief in such a situation may be aware of what is happening. He may know that he has no desire to serve the spriggan, but enthrallment turns his own body against him. It's hard to say for sure. Maybe a thief, who has never had a purpose, whose only goal has been his own survival, would be grateful.

Either way, a thief is as good a thrall as any other creature. He will rise up on shaking limbs and draw his blade. It will be a long journey to the Eldergleam Sanctuary.

This is the path a spriggan and its thief will take: east, skirting Falkreath. Through to the Ancestor Glade, where other spriggans wake to see what is happening. There will be a fight--though the thief belongs to one spriggan alone there will always be a power struggle--and only when the challenger is bested, only when the other spriggans acknowledge the one's authority, only then will it allow the others to follow. A single thief is not much of a thrall, but even he can fight for the cairn of spriggans.

The going will be slow, in part because even an enthralled thief can only move so quickly, but also because the path will take him through snowy paths south of Helgen. In the cold the spriggan will grow stiff, and even the magic it bears cannot move frozen wood quickly. They will be forced to go north, over the mountain to Haemar's Shame. The dragon at Arcwind Point would be a strong thrall, but they will pass through populated areas soon and a dragon would draw too much attention. And so it will be a single entralled thief and half a dozen creaking spriggans who will fight the bandits and soldiers they encounter on the trail ahead.

Do you know how much damage a company of Imperial soldiers can do to a group of spriggans and their human thrall?

The other spriggans will fight valiantly with creatures enthralled in haste--deer, wolves, perhaps a mountain troll--but they do not have a human thrall with the skill to block a blade with his dagger or grab a fallen bow and arrow. It will be the thief who blocks the final blow. He will throw himself between the spriggan and the final soldier with his ebony warhammer. He will take the blow full on his side. Perhaps he will do it gladly.

The spriggan then will strike a blow of its own: bees to panic the soldier and two quick slashes with its claws. It will be one of perhaps two or three left standing.

It will go to its thrall. The thief will still live, though with his ribs crushed like paper and his heart racing like a rabbit with a broken back it will not be a long life.

The thief will look up at the spriggan, and it will be hard to tell whether he looks in awe or in fear.

Spriggan sap can do nothing for internal injuries but it can harden. It can form a solid support on a thief's side, holding him up when he struggles to his feet. He will need that support. There will still be much distance between them and their destination.

They will skirt Ivarstead and stay to the forests, cross the river at Darkwater Pass, and the thief will stay near his spriggan so that he isn't carried over the waterfall's edge. He cannot walk on water as they do. The current will press him to the spriggan's side.

Do you know what a spriggan's bark feels like? The thief will know.

By the time they reach the atronach stone the thief's value will be barely negligible. He will need to lean on the spriggan to walk and his internal wounds will make it almost impossible to be effective with his blade or with his stole bow. Why the spriggan will not simply break him and leave the body for the scavengers is hard to say. It may keep him around to prevent passing humans from fighting back. It may need a human for use of their hands. Maybe--this is extremely unlikely, but maybe--it will just like having the thief around.

The pilgrims in Eldergleam Sanctuary will hear the spriggan's approach. It will not be the first new arrival, but when they come to pay their respects they will react with confusion to the pale trembling thief stumbling alongside the spriggan, his hands clinging to its body and his face pressed to its side. They will wonder that it has not killed him.

But the spriggan will have reached its final destination. It will see that which all spriggans seek, the Eldergleam tree, and it will forget all it has been. It will cast off the thief as easily as shedding a cloak and begin its ascent to the blessed tree.

Do you know what happens to a spriggan's thrall when the enthrallment ends?

The thief will stumble back but fail to find his balance, and when he collapses he will feel his wounds all the more. The pilgrims will gather round him, their hands raising his head from the dirt, questions on their lips, but he will understand nothing. He will look beyond them to where the spriggan drifts over the Eldergleam's roots, and he will reach out.

"Please," he will whisper. "Don't... don't leave me..."

But the spriggan will not hear him. It will sink into the center of the tree and it will sleep.


End file.
